Posted
by
timothyon Friday June 25, 2010 @02:11AM
from the all-I've-got's-this-sunny-afternoon dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Can a blimp propelled entirely by solar power cross the English Channel? We're about to find out! Nephelios, the world's first solar blimp, was built by Projet Sol'r — a collaboration between students at engineering and technical schools in France. Now, almost a year after its debut (and a year after it was supposed to launch), the helium-filled airship is ready for action, with its inaugural flight set to take place next week. The blimp is covered in semi-flexible solar cells that can generate up to 2.4 kilowatts — enough to keep the blimp moving at 25 mph as it crosses la Manche."

Let's fly our sunlight-powered flying
machine in the most overcast place on earth!

Seems perfectly reasonable to me.
First of all- the blimp is not going to crash- helium, not solar power, is what makes it fly. Solar power is just used to propel it. Second, it's possible to fly above the clouds. Third, it's going to fly across the channel. Even if it crashes, it's most likely to land on water.Fourth, aircraft regulations require avoiding densely populated areas if at all possible so even if it crashes on land, it will most likely miss any houses or other important buildings.Fifth, if against all odds said blimp crashes on land in a populated area, it's filled up with helium, not with hydrogen- so it won't burst into flames and as such it would be a lot less eventful than the Hindenburg. Which was a commercial craft anyway (with paying passengers on board), rather than a somewhat experimental craft attempting to cross the channel.

It's possible to fly above the clouds with a blimp - at least low clouds - but generally airships travel at low altitudes. I think the record is at 20000 feet or something, a lot lower than commercial airliners.

It's possible to fly above the clouds with a blimp - at least low clouds - but generally airships travel at low altitudes. I think the record is at 20000 feet or something, a lot lower than commercial airliners.

Huh? All of the altitude records for manned and unmanned aircraft are held by balloons and blimps. The only things that go higher than blimps are rocket-powered. Current record manned ballooning record is 113,740 ft.

but i don't think anything like that will happen. airship have a pretty good safety record. unlike aircraft where we have a major crash every couple years we only had 1 major airship crash.

No, airships have a horrible safety record. Which is why they aren't used anymore. The flying wasn't a problem (most of the time). It was getting the thing landed in anything but the most pristinely calm weather. HUGE surface area means that even the slightest of winds generate tremendous forces. It also meant that getting caught near a pop-up thunder-boomer would turn a summer joy ride into a fight for your life.

also its a good idea to fly low on anything with a uncompressed hall. we learned that in world war 1 lol. being we cant get enough air above 10000 feet. but airships can fly at 20000 if you really what to.

Hydrogen was not the problem. The entire body of the craft was painted in a mix of powdered aluminum, iron oxide, gun powder, and a chemical similar to rocket fuel as a solvent. It's actually amazing that it didn't explode sooner.

Further, over half the passengers on the Hindenburg survived the wreck. Almost NOBODY survives a plane wreck.

For every reason but speed, zeppelins are a superior idea to planes whose time has definitely come again.

Crossing the English Channel with your special contraption doesn't hold any interest or awe for me any more. If Jeremy Clarkson can do it in a car boat of his own design, then any idiot can do it. Big deal.

Wow, and I thought people did crazy thinks to sneak over the border into the US. It's ok, guys, you can have another chance to get out of your group in four years! It's not the end of the world! Just don't try to mess with the Irish luck next time, they invented the four-leaf clover, you know.

Bleriot did it in 1909. The fact that there's a simple PV motor attached actually makes this less impressive than his original feat over a century ago.
I could probably knock up a smaller yet equally effective version with parts from my local electronics shop.
It might not be dumb, but it surely isn't news

FTS I thought it was more about the solar panel material they were using for the blimp.

I don't think Bleriot would have been doing it under solar power either.. this thing just seems like a really cool project. Not sure how difficult it is to keep the helium topped up, but apart from that it could just stay up indefinitely and not need refuelling.

Why is it so dumb? With the wind in the right direction you can float over the Channel / La Manche with no power in a few hours anyway, it's only 20 miles or so at its narrowest point. They'll have a support boat so even if the blimp crash lands they'll be able to fish the pilot out.

I'd say it's great university students are encouraged to take on technical challenges. I'd say the risks are pretty low (and I am sure they would have been thoroughly checked out by the universities, nobody wants their students dying).

Something is "cool" if, on some level, it makes you think "I want one." I could easily imagine commuting to work in one of these (naturally I can't imagine *everyone* doing that, which of course is part of the charm).

Lighter than air craft have crossed the Channel a lot (first crossing recorded by Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries, Dover to Calais in 1785) - my comment meant that it was not "dumb" as in not impossible, and clearly well thought out. Perhaps I should have clarified that. As my second paragraph noted I am all for it, great to see university students taking on what will be a significant challenge for them.

I'm definitely in the doing stuff category where I can, all for folk doing thi

My point was that it is not dumb because it is a reasonably safe yet challenging task for university students to undertake. If things go wrong, they are not in dangerous territories. I'd suggest university students attempting solar blimp navigation across the Atlantic or the Antarctic might be dumb. But 20 miles seems like a nice challenge.

And interestingly my comment got it in the neck for somebody with the opposite point of view, who makes the fair point that just because it's easy for NASA or a large cor

"Maybe I'm just stating the obvious, but a balloon filled with helium doesn't need power to stay airborne, unless things changed since my time. Though who knows, balloons these days..."

To state the REALLY obvious, which you seemed to miss, is that a helium filled balloon also will not sink in WATER, and thus my suggesting it become a submarine would seem to MOST as a joke--as it was intended to be...and apparently not a very good one.

DARPA (which I'm sure you know doesn't have the same kind of budget) has a project about a radar-equipped solar-propelled blimp that would float @ 10,000 meters and include a battery to stock the solar energy of they day for the night.
They expect is to cruise at 60mph with top speed at 100mph. It is supposed to be operational in 2013

This project could totally be adapted, with extra funding like the one they would get by crossing the Channel, with a bigger structure and a battery, to run day and night.

In the past France gave the world the Lebel rifle, Areva, Train à Grande Vitess, Minitel ect.
How is the next generation going to embrace entrepreneurship via ~ You should have just taken an existing
blimp and put a solar panels on it or something.
Less of Homer and more Herbert Powell.

Did they use solar power to create the helium? Since the helium produces the lift, to be solar-powered it would also need to produce the helium. Running a couple of propellers isn't new.
Check out the Helios aircraft from NASA for a true solar-powered aircraft.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/history/pastprojects/Helios/ [nasa.gov]

Did they use solar power to produce the metal and/or carbon fiber for that plane? If not, then by your argument the plane isn't solar powered either. The helium in the blimp is not being consumed like a fuel source, it's just a structural component like whatever other materials encase it. Helium just happens to passively have negative relative mass compared to the medium the blimp is flying in, which lets the blimp fly.

Nearly all the helium produced in the twentieth century came from the ground under Amarillo, Texas where it was created by fissioning of alpha-emitting ores. This near-monopoly on helium, and Germany's deployment of military airships in WW1, resulted in an embargo on helium which explains why the Hindenburg was inflated with hydrogen.

Lift != power. In a winged aircraft the lift is provided by pressure differential which comes from its speed, in a blimp the lift comes from the fact that helium floats in air. It's not powered by helium; the power is for forward movement.

I'm waiting for the day that oil runs out and slow-boat solar is the preferred means of goods transportation. That will the age of sky truckers riding blimps across the land.
And that will give rise to sky-pirates, and my dreams will be complete!